There is only one success — to be able to spend your life in your own way. — Christopher Morley

About Smena

Founders

Master of international space law (retired), videographer, creator of ByeByeBadBoss, and Turbomasala, entrepreneur, speaks English, Chinese and French

A graduate of Psychological faculty of MSU, professional photographer and videographer, fashionista and creator Turbomasala. owns seasonal business in Russia, USA and Europe, leads team-building and storytelling workshops.

NikitaKuimov

Anastasia Klimova-Kuimova

How the idea was born

We have spent the last 8 years traveling. Our trips averaged from one to six months in each country, exploring its traditions, residents and nature. Modern tourism has become a fast food that reflect trends in society: a couple days of low quality and artificial experiences and cheap souvenirs destroying the culture and environment of the region.

We chose to make our trips longer that required a complete revision of our routine. We base our income on seasonal business and remote work. This has released us from a pointless commute each morning and unreasonably expensive rent. We added volunteering and work exchange to the creation of a system where 90% of the time we don't spend any money for staying in the country. Moreover, everything that we earn we invest in development of new projects and ideas.

Volunteering allows us to see travel from a new perspective. Each day consists of interaction with new cultures, development and learning. We believe that because we paying forward without expecting anything in return, we get a lot — the moment we send a signal to the Universe, it hears us.

In order to enrich our travels, we made a conscious decision to avoid tourist traps. We understood that travel shouldn't destroy the balance of nature and shouldn't intrude into the life of locals. So we strive to become locals ourselves. The question "where" slowly evolved into "with whom" and "why".

Developing technology provides people with the freedom to work remotely. Being chained to an office is no longer a necessity for success. The addition of like minded co-thinkers will facilitate the achievement of your goals. We created a co-living and co-working environment bringing together interesting and purposeful people who are ready to give without expecting anything in return. Burning Man taught us that a society based on the laws of kindness and beauty is not only real, but attainable. We invested our own money to create the first Smena in Sri Lanka — and we're proud to say that the project still thrives to this day.

Our mission

We are offering a new format of life and productivity not only for people working remotely, but also for those who have ever desired to do so. A chain of hubs around the world (Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Morocco, Greece, Russia, USA) supporting our core values: joint creativity, authentic experiences, productivity non-dependent on geography and an array of views and directions. For Smena, life experience outweighs monetary possession.